Weekly Review

By Paul Ford

Weighing the soul, 1875.

A suicide bomber set off a bomb at a mess tent on a U.S. base in Mosul, killing 22 and wounding 69. Among the dead were 13 American soldiers and four employees and subcontractors of Halliburton. A spokeswoman for Halliburton called for a full investigation into the attack. South of Kirkuk, insurgents set an oil well on fire,¹ and south of Baghdad, an explosives-rigged gas tanker blew up, killing at least eight.² Families returned to the bombed-out city of Falluja and found little clean water.^{3 4} Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise trip to Mosul on Christmas Eve.⁵ Rumsfeld, under criticism for having his condolence letters to the families of dead American soldiers signed by an automatic pen, said he stays “awake at night for concern for those at risk.”⁶ The ACLU circulated memos, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, that suggest President George W. Bush directly authorized torture against detainees in Iraq.⁷ Tony Blair toured the Middle East, and called for a peace summit in London. The United States and Israel both told him to cut it out.⁸ Wall Street firms were quietly preparing for the privatization of Social Security,⁹ the Bush Administration changed federal forest regulations to cut down on “wasteful and time-consuming” environmental impact statements,¹⁰ and the dollar fell to $1.3505 against the euro.¹¹ Yusuf Halacoglu, president of the Turkish History Institution, accused Armenia of genocide.¹² A new species of monster cockroach was discovered in Indonesia,¹³ a bomb killed two and wounded eight outside a bank in Thailand,¹⁴ and Cuba discovered a new crude oil deposit off the coast near Havana.¹⁵ A man in Calcutta was killed when his co-workers at a rubber factory playfully inserted the tube of an air pump into his anus, and¹⁶ the Pope defrocked Maurice Blackwell, a Baltimore-area priest; in 2002, Blackwell was shot and wounded by an altar boy he allegedly molested.¹⁷ John G. Rowland, the former governor of Connecticut, pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy.¹⁸ The Democrats were thinking of dropping abortion rights from their platform, in order to appeal to “values” voters; many Democratic leaders want to promote adoption over abortion.¹⁹ Adoptees and adoptive parents were calling on Fox TV to stop the broadcast of a game show called “Who's Your Daddy,” in which an adopted woman has to pick her biological father from a line-up; she wins a prize if she picks correctly.²⁰ Eastern Rite, Roman, and Protestant Christian churches celebrated Christmas,²¹ and on Christmas day, 30,000 air passengers were stranded across the United States because of a computer crash.²² The United States cut back on international food aid, a change that will affect five to seven million people in Indonesia, Malawi, Madagascar, and other countries.²³ It snowed in Texas,²⁴ and male fish in the Potomac river were producing eggs.²⁵

A 9.0 magnitude earthquake created a tsunami that ravaged south and southeast Asia, as well as parts of Africa.²⁶ The wave reached from Somalia and Kenya to Malaysia. Thousands of fatalities were reported in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, South India, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.²⁷ Three-story waves washed sunbathers into the sea, carried away snorkelers, and swallowed up Hindu ritual bathers celebrating Full Moon Day. A prison in Sumatra was torn open by the tsunami, and hundreds of inmates fled. A baby was washed from her father's arms.²⁸ At least 25,000 died, and millions were displaced.²⁹ Entire towns were turned into rubble. Corpses hung from trees and fences, and the rotting bodies of humans and animals threatened to pollute water supplies.³⁰ It was difficult to bury the dead for lack of dry ground.³¹ The earthquake was the largest since 1964, and slightly altered the rotation of the earth.³² Other quakes were felt in India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.³³ Viktor Yushchenko, his face still disfigured from dioxin poisoning, appeared to have won the presidency of the Ukraine over Viktor Yanukovich.³⁴ A mentally ill man went on a stabbing rampage in London, killing one and injuring five,³⁵ and the UK's National Health Service was running low on painkillers.³⁶ Reggie White died.³⁷ Strike Holdings, which manages several bowling alleys in the United States, decided to return the investments it received from the Palestinian Authority,³⁸ and 10,000 people were dying each month in Darfur.³⁹

A poll showed that 56 percent of Americans believe the Iraq war is “not worth fighting.”⁴⁰ Another poll showed that 44 percent of Americans believe that Muslims should have their civil liberties curtailed; 27 percent favor registration of Muslims, and 29 percent believe that law enforcement agencies should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations. ⁴¹ A third poll showed that three-quarters of Iraqis intend to vote in upcoming elections; 41 percent incorrectly believe that they are voting for an Iraqi president.⁴² Polls also showed that “Stairway to Heaven” was the greatest rock song of all time,⁴³ that Britney Spears was the number one star in America,⁴⁴ that teens were smoking less, but⁴⁵ are increasingly likely to abuse the painkiller OxyContin,⁴⁶ that gay people make more cell phone calls,⁴⁷ that the best part of Christmas is family time,⁴⁸ and that nearly three quarters of doctors believe in miracles.⁴⁹ Studies showed that doctors were much more likely to kill themselves than the general population,⁵⁰ that doctors talk less when treating white patients than they do when treating black patients,⁵¹ that lung cancer runs in families,⁵² that parents enjoy a visit with Santa more than their children do,⁵³ and that the terminally ill do not, as is commonly believed, hold on to life until major events, like birthdays or holidays, transpire. Rather, they simply die.⁵⁴ Other studies found that more Americans die on Christmas and the day after New Year's than on any other day of the year,⁵⁵ that meditation improves heart health,⁵⁶ that gastric bypass surgery is more effective than dieting for the severely obese,⁵⁷ that half of American food goes to waste,⁵⁸ that the number of starving Iraqi children has nearly doubled in the last 21 months,⁵⁹ and that young owls learn new skills more quickly than do old owls.⁶⁰ Another study showed that 22 percent of medical devices were not adequately studied.⁶¹ Italian police used computer software to create a composite sketch of Jesus Christ at age 12, based on the Shroud of Turin. The sketch shows that Christ had blue eyes, fair skin, and dirty blond hair.⁶² The Siloam Pool, where Christ is said to have healed the blind (John 9:7), was discovered in Jerusalem,⁶³ and paralyzed rats, injected with brain cells culled from human embryos, were rising up and walking.⁶⁴ A California company shipped its first cloned cat,⁶⁵ Martha Stewart called for prison reform,⁶⁶ and NASA announced that a 400-meter asteroid had a good chance of striking the earth in 2029.⁶⁷